Gallagher eShepherd

Virtual fencing where you own the solar collars outright and pay only a small monthly connectivity fee

As of 1 September 2026, Gallagher eShepherd's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. GPS neckbands that fence cattle with sound and a pulse instead of wire. Softwr lists it under Agriculture. Gallagher eShepherd is made by Gallagher Group Limited, available on Web, iOS, Android.

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Overview

What Gallagher eShepherd does

eShepherd is Gallagher’s virtual fencing system for cattle. Solar-powered neckbands hold each animal inside a boundary drawn on a map, warning with an audio cue as the animal approaches the line and delivering a pulse only if it continues. Paddocks are moved from a phone, so rotational grazing that would take a day of fencing takes a minute. Gallagher acquired the technology from Australian development and now sells it across 25 or more regions including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and much of Europe. The commercial shape is unusual and it is the reason to shortlist it. You buy the neckbands, you do not lease them per head. The band has a lithium iron phosphate cell with a stated 7 to 10 year design life, is IPX7 rated, and carries a three-year defect warranty; the ongoing charge is a small fixed monthly connectivity fee per active neckband, with fees only on bands that are active. Firmware and software updates are included rather than sold as a tier. A cellular version removed the earlier requirement for on-property base stations, though a LoRa version with roof or windmill-mounted base stations is still offered where mobile coverage is poor. Buyers are extensive beef and grazing operations where fencing labour and material dominate the budget, and where subdividing a large paddock is otherwise uneconomic. The constraints are real: the system needs at least 20 animals to train a mob, cattle only, and Gallagher quotes rather than publishes prices, so the headline advantage of ownership is hard to verify until you are in the sales process.

What people use it for

A ranch subdividing a 2,000 acre paddock for rotational grazing without buying a mile of wire
A grazier fencing cattle out of a creek line for a stewardship scheme without building riparian fence
An operation on leased ground where permanent fencing is not permitted or not recoverable
A farm short of labour that needs paddock moves done from a phone rather than a quad bike

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Gallagher eShepherd.

Gallagher does not publish neckband prices, quoting instead by herd size, region and connectivity type, so the ownership-versus-lease advantage over subscription rivals cannot be verified without a sales conversation.
A minimum of about 20 animals is needed to train a mob, which rules out smallholders and makes the system awkward for operations that run many small separate groups.
It is cattle only: sheep, goats and deer are not supported, so a mixed grazing enterprise still needs conventional fencing for everything else.
The connectivity fee is per active neckband and continues indefinitely, so the collars are yours but the system stops fencing if you stop paying, which is the same dependency as a subscription with a different label.
Virtual fencing is regulated inconsistently: some jurisdictions restrict or have not yet ruled on aversive-stimulus containment, and welfare-scheme or organic certifier acceptance varies, so eligibility should be checked locally before ordering.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Gallagher eShepherd

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Gallagher eShepherdvs
AgriWebb
AgriWebb: Grazing and paddock records without any collar hardware
Gallagher eShepherdvs
Farmbrite
Farmbrite: General livestock record keeping for smaller mixed operations
Gallagher eShepherdvs
Allflex Livestock Intelligence
Allflex Livestock Intelligence: If the priority is health and heat monitoring rather than containment

Pricing

What Gallagher eShepherd costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

eShepherd neckband

On request

Neckbands purchased outright, not leased per head
Small fixed monthly connectivity fee per active neckband
Fees charged only on active bands
Firmware and software updates included
3 year defect warranty, 7 to 10 year design life
Cellular or LoRa base station versions

Capabilities

Features

Map-drawn virtual paddocks
Boundaries created and moved on a phone or web map with no physical fence
Audio cue then pulse
Animals learn the boundary from sound, with a pulse only on continued approach
Solar neckband
Lithium iron phosphate cell with a stated 7 to 10 year design life, IPX7 rated
Cellular or LoRa connectivity
Cellular version needs no base station; LoRa version uses small on-property base stations
Animal location tracking
Live position of each collared animal for mustering and welfare checks
Grazing rotation management
Sequenced paddock moves scheduled ahead rather than executed manually
Exclusion zones
Riparian strips, revegetation areas and hazards fenced out without physical materials
Behaviour alerts
Flags animals that repeatedly breach or sit outside the boundary

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Do I lease the collars or own them?

You buy them outright. The ongoing cost is a small monthly connectivity fee per active neckband, not a per-head lease.

Do I need base stations?

Not with the cellular version, which uses existing mobile networks. The LoRa version needs small on-property base stations and suits areas with poor coverage.

How many cattle do I need?

At least 20 to train a mob, after which groups can be split into smaller mobs as long as each contains leaders and followers.

Does it work for sheep?

No. eShepherd is a cattle system.

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Gallagher eShepherd, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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